Month-End TTM Roundup: 2/1 - 2/27

 

Received On: 02/06/2021

My first return for February is one I've already blogged about, but I didn't say much about Steve Carlton at the time, so I'm fixing that now.

Carlton was originally signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as an amateur free agent back in 1963 out of Miami Dade College. After a few years in the minors he made his MLB debut with the Cards in 1965 and he'd immediately go on to be one of the game's finest. He won his first World Series ring with the Cards in 1967 and then set the record for the most strikeouts in a single 9-inning game with 19 (later broken by Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood) in 1969, a game against the Mets that the Cards somehow lost. Carlton eventually wound up traded to the Phillies before the 1972 season following a contract dispute with the Cards and he led the league in several major categories en route to his first ever Cy Young Award. He'd pick up three more Cy Youngs and another World Series title with the Phillies. Following his Phillies tenure he'd go from team to team before retiring in 1989. At the time of his retirement he'd set a fair number of records, especially for a southpaw, including the most strikeouts by a lefty pitcher, and he was even ahead of Nolan Ryan for most strikeouts in a career (although Ryan and others later passed Carlton). Naturally he was elected into the baseball HoF.

Received On: 02/11/2021

Next up is a return from Alex Bregman.

Bregman was drafted by the Houston Astros in the first round of the 2015 MLB Player Draft out of Louisiana State University. Bregman was immediately considered one of the brightest prospects in the game and eventually made his MLB debut in 2016, roughly a year after being drafted. He'd go on to immediately become an elite young star as he was selected to the All Star Game twice in 2018 and 2019, and he won his first World Series ring with the Astros in 2017. Bregman is still just entering his prime (turns 27 this March) and he's already considered one of the best defensive infielders in the game, and if his offense ticks back up again who knows where he could be down the line. Definitely a fun and pleasant return that came the fuck out of nowhere.

Received On: 02/13/2021

Here's a return from former NHL centre Curt Bennett.

Bennett was originally drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the second round of the 1968 NHL Player Draft out of Brown University. The Canada-native made his NHL debut in the 1970-71 season and would soon get his first taste of playoff hockey. But before long he was traded to the New York Rangers, then was traded to the Atlanta Flames where he got more ice time than ever before and he became one of the most prominent fixtures of the team. He was with the Flames for about five and a half seasons and most of them were some of the best of his career. He'd later bounce around from a couple of teams and even wound up as a player-coach in Japan. Pretty cool.

Received On: 02/25/2021

My last return in February was from Ron Greschner.

Greschner was drafted by the Rangers in the the second round of the 1974 NHL Player Draft. He'd go on to enjoy a 16-year tenure entirely with the Rangers and was a fixture for them throughout the 70's and early-to-mid 80's before retiring in the late 80's. The defenseman notably set a few team records such as being the youngest defenseman to score three goals in a single game, as well as playing in the second most games for the club in team history.

And those were my returns this past month. Big thanks to Mr. Carlton, Bregman, Bennett and Greschner for the autographs.

And as always thank you (the readers) for stopping by. Take care.

2021 TTM Count: 8

Sources:

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/carltst01.shtml

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bregmal01.shtml

*https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/b/bennecu01.html

*https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/grescro01.html

My Day Is Ruined

Daft Punk Have Split Up, Publicist Confirms https://t.co/LmZvzK665h

— Variety (@Variety) February 22, 2021

 Thanks for everything you robots.

A Decade In The Hobby

 Some undefined time this year (think like late-August) I'll officially have been in this hobby for 10 years. The starting point for me is the day I decided to walk into a card shop in Japan called Match-Up one summer day in 2011. I don't remember what day it was.

Fast forward to 2021, I'm kind of the same but also kind of a different person I guess but still somewhat in this hobby. For the most part this blog has served as a journal/log for my journey. There's a solid three years of content missing but those weren't particularly interesting beyond me opening way more boxes and packs than I should've been. Also Sega Card Gens.

Still, 10 years. Part of me shudders at how my high school years are now that far behind in the mirror. Knowing that none of us can really beat father time doesn't make it better I've got to say.

Anyway to mark the occasion I thought I'd pick up a card that's significant. And because I'm impatient I decided to do it in February instead of August (also y'know, had to take advantage of the eBay bucks extra 5% promo too). Something that really brings me back to 2011. Something on the pricier side.

My "dream card" has always been the 2011 Bowman Chrome Bryce Harper autograph. It was the hottest commodity of 2011 and I still remember the hype and excitement for it. If it were released today I wouldn't think twice about it, but because it was the it card when I was just starting out, it's always been something to reach for.

But it's also expensive. Especially now that we're currently in some weird collecting bubble that's made cards far more expensive than they're worth again. Maybe some day it'll fall a bit down to a more reasonable price than from the "at least $500" mark it's at now. But in the meantime I opted for the next best thing.

Boom.

A 2011 Bowman Draft green auto (it's basically a paper auto) of Bryce Harper. This and the Bryce Harper auto in 2011 Bowman (also a paper auto) were the next best options for me personally since they both have the 2011 Bowman design, and they're both Bryce Harper autographs.

I did own another Bryce Harper auto once upon a time but it was traded for an A-Rod autograph when I deemed that it was a trade chip more than something I really wanted to keep. The previous Harper auto I had was one of his Team USA Upper Deck offerings which wasn't bad, but it wasn't from 2011. This time I'm hoping this doesn't turn into a trade chip in my eyes. 

Seeing the 2011 Bowman back for the first time in a while is nice too. I forgot how sleek it was. I dare say it looks better than Bowman's more recent offerings though I probably can't say much since I'm heavily biased.

In some ways it's fitting that the first Harper I'd have in my hands again came from a Bowman Draft offering. Although I've come to be really disinterested with it, there was a time where Bowman Draft was my favorite product because it was my first introduction to so many fresh faces that were completely new to me. Nowadays I'm likely already in possession of cards featuring the newest Yankee draft class before Bowman Draft even comes out. I realize that that's not Bowman's fault, but it doesn't make me think spending $44.99 plus tax on a single jumbo pack of Bowman Draft is any more justifiable (I miss Chameleon and its dime boxes so damn much).

A lot has changed in the past decade. For both Harper and myself. Neither of us even live in the same cities as we did in 2011 and we're both holding onto what's left of our 20s for dear life. Hell, the "dream card" of mine isn't even the most notable or valuable card that was released that year now (thanks a lot Mike Trout). But he's always been around. Every baseball game, every baseball rumor, every card set, every product release. Harper's been a steady presence in my collecting world even without me having to pay attention to him. He was there when I started. He was there when I was really getting hooked. He was there when I moved back to NYC. He's still there now. He'll never be "the guy" for me as I love having a much more focused Luis Torrens super-collection, but he'll always be somewhere, and I find comfort in that. Comfortable enough that I'll still keep the 2011 BoChro auto as a goal to obtain for another day. Maybe one day I'll even start seeing if I can look into maybe nabbing a few more cards of his from 2011 that I don't have.

10 years of collecting, 10 years of Bryce Harper. What a ride both have been.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Pure High Number

So yesterday I got this in the mail.

That is a Leaf Trinity Pure auto of Luis Torrens limited to nine copies. Normally there are supposed to be 10 of these, but for whatever reason Torrens' green is limited to nine.

With this I have the 1/1, the /5, the /9 and the base. According to Beckett I only need the blue parallel limited to 25 copies. The variant I hadn't seen in the wild recently. Who would've thought a /25 serial number would be the last one standing in my way to completing a rainbow. Though then again this is Leaf so there's probably some weird uncirculated parallels numbered to 3 or shit.

Still, being in reasonable range of a rainbow is never a bad thing, we'll see what happens with this one.

In the meantime I'm still trying to a grip on what the fuck this is.

We are at the "starting to have Heritage cards" phase of Luis Torrens' major league baseball career. It is very weird to see him go from a clean shaven Bowman Chrome prospect to a bearded Heritage High Number major leaguer. Obviously it's very cool because it's a sign that he's been able to stick around. But at the same time he's on a set design from the 70's. My favorite players are usually prospects/minor leaguers. They're not supposed to be on throwback sets that Night Owl Cards compares to cards from his childhood. 

And yet, there he is. Given that now we're in the 70's for Heritage sets, I can now only hope that Torrens' MLB career lasts long enough that he can have a card when Topps inevitably redoes 1979 Topps, my favorite card design of that decade (and right up there for all time with 2011 and 2013).

Of course it's still modern Topps so naturally there are parallels. I've never bothered with Heritage so I'm not super knowledgeable about what Heritage High Number rainbows are like, but I understand that there is also something called a "flip stock" parallel. Sure, fine whatever. As long as I don't have to deal with plates and a 1/1.

So there is a little update on the Torrens collection as of now. Right now the Torrenterion collection page is currently getting reworked as maintaining it became difficult after Blogger changed its layout to what it is now. But I'll get it updated and back in order eventually. Maybe.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Making It Happen

 Okay I'll admit it, I am an autograph hound. Not the kind that actively chases celebrities down at the airport to get 8x10 photographs signed, but more like if I see an appropriate opportunity to get an autograph of someone on a trading card, I'm very likely to explore it.

Especially when the trading card in question matters. Most people tend to get stuff that's typical like base cards or rookie cards signed. Occasionally you have some people with items or pictures of events that are very personal to them (those stories always gold btw, love hearing them). But on the whole you usually expect a bunch of cards everyone's seen over and over. I've gotten those cards signed too in moments where they were the only options available, but if I have a plethora of options to choose from I'm going to go for more unique choices. My first paid mail-in signing of 2021 will attest to this I think.

That is a Golden Moments die-cut from 2012 Topps. It wasn't distributed in packs but instead you redeemed them online using codes in what was then called the "Golden Giveaway". A much lesser version of the Diamond Giveaway that Topps had done just a year earlier. Although it's worth noting that Topps hasn't done anything similar to either in the years since as they shifted their online presence more towards the Topps Now model they have now.

Anyway sometime in January I saw that Steve Carlton was doing a paid mail-in signing with the same company that organizes my local card shows. I didn't think much of it at first until I was looking for a certain card to gift a friend in Japan. That card in question was another Diamond Giveaway die-cut of another player. When I found that card on eBay, my brain suddenly had a moment where I wanted to see if the seller who had the cheapest listing also had a Steve Carlton die-cut. By some miracle they did. "I want to buy this, and get this signed", was the first thought in my brain. I picked up one other DGDC I wanted and eight days later the three die-cuts were at my door. Then within 24 hours of that the Carlton and a check for the signing and shipping fees were shipped out.

Fast forward to the sixth of February and I was now the owner of a signed 2012 Topps GMDC of baseball hall of famer Steve Carlton.

A quick Google and eBay search reveals that this might be one of the few actually signed die-cuts in the world. These GMDC cards did have some autographed variations, but they are rare and few and far between. Adding to that, they aren't exactly people's first choice to get signed since they're not rookie cards and weren't even widely distributed enough to be someone's first option.

I'm not entirely sure why but I am slowly but surely starting to become very happy getting as many different cards from as many different sets as I can signed. My friend Ryan G over at This Card Is Cool has something called a type collection where he collects at least one card from every set and subset ever. A daunting undertaking for sure but one that is very unique and may have inspired something in me.

I'm not ever going to go as far as he does, and even more importantly I'm not gonna try and get every unique card I do obtain signed either. But if the stars align just right and things fall into place as well as they did for this, I'll certainly have no qualms about exploring it. While it remains to be seen how much more will get added to that list of oddballs, I'll at least appreciate that they're some of the few that exist in the world because I was dumb enough to see it through.

Also damn, this card is fucking pretty. Topps should've just distributed these cards normally as special inserts or something, the refractory shinyness on this thing is nice and I love the way it helps the signature just absolutely pop.

And for anyone who does own a GMDC and is curious, yes I removed the film. Before I sent it off I brushed it up with the old "rub with an eraser" trick. No issues so far but we'll see how the ink holds up in the coming years I suppose.

Man, what a return. What a card.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.

Making The Most Of It

 COMC is a service that I'm not sure what to make of. On one hand it's convenient and it's one stop shopping on a scale that's better than eBay since it's all coming from the same source, COMC's inventory in the state of Washington.

On the other hand if I want to purchase multiple items smartly I need to think about what gives me the best possible combination for what I want and gives me enough wiggle room to afford shipping fees.

COMC's credit system is one I'd rather not bother with if I could help it. I just do not like having unused money left in the account and I try to get it down to zero as much as I can. Since 2018 I've stopped bothering with it and went to check-out outright so I could day directly.

But in the waning days of 2020 a card emerged that I just had to get. But given the post office/COMC's shipping schedules being so delayed by COVID-19 (among other factors) this time I thought I'd make the most of it by gathering as many things that I've had on my watch forever that I just never pulled the trigger on. One big purchase for almost everything I wanted, all in one swoop. Some of which could only be found on COMC anyway.

Alright might as well get to the big key card that set it off out of the way first. This is a Luis Torrens Leaf Pure acetate auto. It's thick and lovely and a 1/1. It's my 20th 1/1 of the Torrenator and now puts me in a position where I need to think how close I am to finishing the rainbow. I have the /5 and the base and if memory serves there's a serial numbered to 9 and 25 respectively. Hmm...

So with the big boy added and in tow here are some of the others.

This is a card of The Killers, one of my favorite bands that I've wanted for years now. This comes from a set of cards Topps made back in 2013 for bands on the Lollapalooza tour and you can find a lot of great modern bands in the checklist. For me The Killers is my favorite of the bunch and I've only seen this one card on COMC available during the entire time it's been on my radar. I remember being around $100 before the seller dropped it to $20. I got it at that amount. Kinda pricey for an unautographed card but considering the rarity and how it's the band that made Somebody Told me, worth it.

Here's an autograph of Zeb Orrelios, aka a Steve Blum autograph. Steve Blum is a notable voice actor who's done a ton of work mostly for anime and video games. His notable anime dubs include Cowboy Bebop and Naruto while for video games he was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for most video game acting credits in 2012. As for Zeb he's one of the main characters of Star Wars Rebels, and the last one I needed to complete my Rebels autograph set.

Chopper is the only one unsigned but if I ever run into Dave Filoni, I know what to do.

There were a few other cards (22 total) in the package but I'll cut it off there for now. A bulk of the remaining cards were obtained as either gifts or to be used for TTM purposes. They might appear in other posts, they might not. Who knows?

Anyway those were my latest purchases of COMC. FWIW after spending well over $100 on this latest package I decided to just go with the express shipping. If I already paid that much then I'm not going to cheapen out and have to wait for my cards. Took only a few days for them to ship out my stuff and about roughly the same time to actually arrive at my doorstop. A week total. Reinforcing that if you want things done quickly, you gotta pay more.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.